Pole vaulting was brought into the limelight by none other than Allison Stokke, who set the bar pretty high excuse the pun when her sporting talents were catapulted into the media stratosphere after a certain photo. The sportswoman and viral sensation was thrust into the world of criticism, media, paparazzi, and scrutiny from a young age; but there is more to the photo than meets the eye.
Before she became a celebrity in her own right, Allison Stokke has battled through some of the toughest times of her life. So how did it all go down? There are thousands of track and field athletes around the world, and in , Allison Stokke was just another number to add to that list.
The American high school senior worked part-time as a model and had already made a name for herself in the world of pole vaulting, and had broken numerous records. However, her life changed forever when her photograph was taken during a competition. This photo soon took over the internet and Allison had become a viral sensation overnight.
She had been noticed. Allison Rebecca Stokke was born on March 22, She spent her early years in California with her parents, Allan and Cindy Stokke, and grew up with her older brother, David. From a young age, Allison was surrounded by sport. Her brother was a talented gymnast and competed at a national level which is pretty darn impressive. So, she searched for a new sport that was more up her alley. After searching for a sport of her own, Allison found the perfect fit.
As soon as she picked up the pole and started running towards the bar, Allison knew she had found her passion, and she knew she had the capability to succeed in the world of pole vaulting and of course, she did! The determined sports star wasted no time in perfecting her craft, and soon went on to become one of the youngest, most successful pole vaulters in the country. When she was just 15 years old, Allison Stokke won the US title and jumped a whopping During her freshman years at high school, Allison Stokke pushed herself even further to become the greatest pole vaulter in history — and her hard work paid off, as she started breaking her own records.
In , she set a new pole vaulting record when she jumped an incredible 12 feet 8 inches. In her senior year, Allison was managing to juggle her studies and her scrupulous training schedule. Nevertheless, she knew it was all worthwhile, as she was slowly but surely becoming nationally and internationally recognized as the pole vaulter to beat.
She was topping the league and medals tables and was a surefire competitor. Life was going incredibly well for the young sports star. However, her perfect life took an unexpected turn in , when she was photographed at a pole vaulting event.
The thenyear-old was patiently waiting her turn in a competition when an innocent bystander took a photo of her. The photograph was published on the internet and re-published onto a blog called With Leather which posts photos of young women for an all-male clientele. The blog in question had a pretty dodgy reputation and re-posted her photograph with a seedy and demeaning caption, which had nothing to do with her sport or incredible talent.
The internet now had the photograph. As the first photograph took over the internet, many Allison Stokke fan clubs and websites made their way into the public domain. These websites managed to uncover more and more photographs of the young pole vaulter and published them on their websites for men to fawn over. Soon enough, the photo had made its way across the pond, and Allison Stokke soon had an international fan-base.
As her name continued to dominate websites and blog posts, her name was soon picked up by news stations and newspapers, including The Washington Post and The New York Times. News reports of her photograph and her fame were broadcast in Germany, the UK, and she had even made her way to Australia — where her story was featured on a popular talk show. Allison was perturbed by the situation. The young sportswoman had spent years perfecting her craft to be seen as a competent and talented pole vaulter and was now making the rounds for a photograph that had been misconstrued by a website.
After a while, she tried to take control of the situation — but the power of the media was just too strong. In fact, Allison had to hire a manager to deal with all of the emails and phone calls she was receiving. However, she also had to deal with the much darker side of fame: stalkers. After a while, Stokke knew she had to do something to shift the attention away from her photographs and her looks — so, she organized an interview with a major news outlet.
In this interview, she gave budding sports women tips on how to perfect the pole vaulting techniques, and the video was uploaded to YouTube. However, the video did not have the desired effect. Instead of commenting on her talent, many of the , people that watched the video continued to talk about her physique and her beauty.
Allan Stokke, her father, was a practicing lawyer who made it his mission to help his daughter and keep her away from danger and unwanted attention. They hoped the consultant would help with the media requests and tell the story in a way that celebrates Allison Stokke for who she is instead of what she looks like. The video received hundreds of thousands of views. But to her disappointment, the comments and discussions on the video mostly remained sexual and related to her looks.
Allison Stokke had been receiving so much unwanted attention that the safety of her and her family became a priority issue. As her father desperately searched for solutions, the pressure continued to mount up.
Eventually, it appeared as though Allison was out of answers. All of the attention Stokke received began to take a toll. Instead, they saw her as a sex symbol. A sex symbol against her will, Allison Stokke had gone viral for something she had no control over. Every effort she and her family made to prevent strangers from invading her privacy seemed to result in strangers becoming even more invasive than they already were.
By that point, Allison Stokke was desperate to get through high school and move away to college. A change of scenery could maybe help her leave the entire scandal behind. As the controversy raged, Allison Stokke needed to get away and start a new chapter of her life. But with so much negative attention on her, would it even be possible for the pole vaulter to go to college and compete for a track and field program?
Allison Stokke finished in eighth place at the national junior championships in her final year of high school. But college recruiters could still decide the attention she might bring to their team would be too much to handle.
She waited and waited for an offer, until she finally decided to make a life-changing decision. With a major decision to make, Allison Stokke chose to attend the University of California, Berkeley. The college offered her an athletic scholarship to compete as a pole vaulter for their track and field program. Allison Stokke trained hard to prepare for her college career, desperately hoping to continue her pole vaulting success.
Would Allison Stokke finally be able to move past the nightmare high school controversy and thrive as a college athlete? Or was the controversy that had haunted her family for years finally be the obstacle she was unable to overcome? Finally, it seemed like Allison was back on track. But the star pole vaulter was about to encounter another shocking twist that would alter the course of her life. By her sophomore year of college, Allison Stokke had added another four inches to her personal best pole vault mark.
It seemed as though Allison Stokke had reached her peak. With her collegiate career in the rearview mirror, Allison decided to turn her attention and focus her efforts on competing in the London Olympics. In , she reached a new lifetime best of 4. The mark showed that Stokke had a strong chance to qualify for the Olympics if she could clear that height when it mattered most. She continued putting work into a potential Olympic bid and eventually managed to qualify for the U.
Olympic Trials. With a chance at Olympic glory on the line, Stokke went to the trials. But when she arrived, something unimaginable happened. But here's some anecdotal evidence to suggest that number is ridiculously high: the same week the image was posted online, Stokke opened up Facebook. The number of requests pouring into her account had broken Facebook's counting mechanism. Or consider this: the week after the photo appeared online, Cindy Stokke went to the neighborhood dry cleaner, where the woman behind the counter looked at her ticket, saw the last name and asked if she was related to the girl in the pole-vaulting picture.
In the infamous photo, Stokke is competing in a high school meet. She is, in that moment, an athlete, just as she is now. The year the viral photo was taken, she was 17 years old and the best high school vaulter in the country. In the picture, she is strong, her body taut. Of course, that's not why the photo went viral -- not really. The image tore across the web because men thought she looked hot. Part of that "hotness" is certainly her strength, her body, which also helps make her a better pole vaulter.
But let's not kid ourselves: very few people ogling the photo saw Stokke through the athlete prism. They saw sex. Hubba, hubba. The picture is like a Rubin vase for sports. What do you see when you look at the photo: a female athlete preparing to vault, or a sexy young woman striking a pose? If most people see only sex, even though Stokke was literally in the middle of a competition, and if she does not want to be a sex symbol and really loathes the idea, then how does she continue being an athlete?
If society has intertwined those two identities, how does she go about being one without reinforcing the other? It's like that picture is my alter-ego and sometimes I feel like I use it for a positive force, and sometimes I just choose to leave it out there and not engage with it.
Stokke is now 27, and she's still vaulting. In fact, last year, the Cal graduate moved from California to Phoenix, where she's training, working under a new coach and surrounded by the very best.
She wanted to give herself the best chance to achieve her lifelong dream: making the Olympic team. The Southern California native briefly gave up her sport a few years ago, deciding she needed to move on and get her master's. But she quickly realized she wasn't yet done. She still wanted to try to twist her body over greater and greater heights. Stokke will be watching from the sidelines, as her 4. It's July of , and Stokke is sitting in the back of a coffee shop in Orange County when the guy at the next table leans into her space.
She catches the movement out of the corner of her eye. She was, in fact. She was talking about why she first started vaulting she grew out of gymnastics , her years at the University of California to , the small international competitions in Europe where you rent a car and drive all night instead of paying for a hotel, and about chasing the Olympic dream.
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